Man Claiming To Be Prophet Is Arrested

CAIRO, Egypt -- A man who stood up in a mosque during prayers and announced that he was God's messenger was arrested Tuesday for abuse of religion, police said.

Ali el-Sayed Mohammed Enani, 37, was arrested one day after another man was sentenced to five years in prison for abuse of religion and sedition by claiming to be a prophet.

During Friday prayers in the Nile delta town of Belqas, Enani announced that God had spoken to him, calling him a "prophet for the people of this time," a police official said.

Enani, a laborer, claimed that God told him the five daily prayers performed by devout Muslims were no longer required.

He said he was also told to prevent people from watching television as it was forbidden, the official said.

ASIA

Muslims, Christians clash; 17 are killed

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Clashes between Muslim and Christian gangs in eastern Indonesia and attacks by separatist rebels in the far west left 17 people dead Tuesday.

Mobs rampaged in Ambon, the capital of the Maluku archipelago, looting and setting ablaze dozens of shops in sectarian violence between Christian and Muslim residents, officials and witnesses said.

Clashes between the rival groups have wracked the province, 1,450 miles east of Jakarta, that was known as the Spice Islands during Dutch colonial rule.

More than 300 people died during similar violence in January.

Police attempted to disperse hundreds of looters by firing tear gas and warning shots into the air. But when the gangs -- armed with rocks, machetes, lances, arrows and gasoline bombs -- failed to scatter, officers were seen firing into the crowds.

AFRICA

Congo troops, rebels exchange artillery fire

BUKAVU, Congo -- Government troops exchanged artillery fire with rebels advancing through Congo's northern forests, a rebel leader said Tuesday, in a fresh sign that the yearlong civil war was nowhere near ending.

The reported fighting came as South Africa launched an effort to get the rebels' signature on a July 10 peace agreement signed by Congo President Laurent Kabila and the two countries backing the rebels, Rwanda and Uganda.

Jean-Pierre Bemba, whose 10,000 troops continue their fight to topple Kabila, said his forces came under heavy shelling Monday in Djombo and Lusengo, about 620 miles northeast of the capital, Kinshasa.

Bemba said his forces fired artillery rounds in response, killing 21 government soldiers in an ambush on a road near Djombo in northern Equateur Province, the rebel leader's home region.

AUSTRALIA

Heroin injection center to be opened

SYDNEY, Australia -- The first legal heroin injecting center will open in Sydney next year as part of an effort to get addicts off the streets, officials said Tuesday.

A radical revamp of New South Wales state drug laws also includes trials of a compulsory treatment program for small-time users of heroin, speed, LSD and ecstasy, officials said.

The Catholic order the Sisters of Charity and St. Vincent's Hospital will run a medically supervised injecting room for 18 months in Kings Cross, Sydney's nightclub district.

"The point about this is to get heroin use off the streets and to prevent the continuing degradation of the environment of Kings Cross," said the prime minister of New South Wales, Bob Carr.

"To get people into an environment where treatment is part of it, and yes, on the way through we might save a few lives," Carr said.